I've just had a quick look at the collections page and they've got a Bell needle gauge the same as the same as the one I inherited from my Grandma! - though it was more likely to have originally belonged to her sister, my gt Aunt Annie.

Grandma could knit socks, but she excelled in fine crochet. Aunt Annie was the knitter, although she would only ever use one colour at a time, she said stripes or Fair Isle made her eyes go funny so goodness knows what she would have made of today's multi coloured yarns.

That's an amazing statistic about the WI knitting 22 million garments. My mum had to knit socks for soldiers when she was at school (she was born in 1929). I'll send her the link, I'm sure she will find it interesting - she's still an excellent knitter.